The Open-Source School for Street Photography

“A Royal Picnic”: Documenting the Royal Wedding via Food Culture by Tiffany Jones in London

Eric’s Note: I met Tiffany Jones when I was in London on the judging panel for the London Street Photography Competition. Not only is she a great judge and curator, but a great street photographer. Check out her project: “A Royal Picnic” below!

Tiffany: A year has passed now since the Royal Wedding took place in London. It was a really exciting time to be photographing in the city as there was a jolly air of celebration which is somewhat unusual! People pulled out all the stops to dress up and make the day a memorable occasion. I started out early morning shooting random single images in Trafalgar Square and along the Mall where crowds were taking up optimal viewing positions along the procession route from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey, where the wedding was.

I wandered across the Mall and into St James’s Park just moments before access was blocked, and I ended up ‘getting stuck’ in the park during the main event. By instinct I was drawn to try to get a view of the procession but that was a futile endeavour. I also photographed the crowds of flag-wavers trying to climb higher up on street furniture for a better view of the Royals. All of this soon lost my interest and I turned towards the park thinking of getting a snack at one of the food kiosks set up for the day.

I looked around to see what the people sitting on blankets were eating and saw that most had prepared picnics for the event, to share with friends and family. This is when the idea struck me to photograph the picnics top-down, without including faces in the images. I thought the approach was quite revealing in terms of looking at our ready-made food culture, and a meditation on the care some people took (or didn’t) in preparing their spread for the day.

I obsessively photographed the picnics, running around the park while the wedding was underway. I think the result was a set of images quite different from what other photographers shot that day, and taken geographically at the heart of the wedding event.

About Tiffany

As a photographer Tiffany has made the street her subject for the past eight years, shooting day and night starting in Vancouver, then New York and London. She is Editor of fLIP magazine for London Independent Photography and for the past two years has been on the judging panel for the International Street Photography Awards. She regularly speaks about her work to other photographers, and leads workshops in street photography and project editing.

Hm.. what camera does she use? I love her work and it would be interesting to get a hint about her technique when she´s working amongst people.

http://twitter.com/tijo_london Tiffany Jones

Thanks Daniel, I think I can answer this! This series was shot with a Canon 5D with hotshoe-mounted flash (don’t usually use flash). Re: working amongst people: just shoot as your personality dictates!